No survivors after passenger jet crashes shortly after takeoff outside Moscow

There are no survivors after a passenger jet carrying 71 people crashed shortly after taking off from an airport outside Moscow.

The aircraft, which was carrying 65 passengers and six members of flight crew, disappeared from radar just minutes after leaving Domodedovo Airport on Sunday.

Wreckage was found in the Ramenskoye area about 25 miles from the airport.

Emergency services at the scene of the crash. Credit: PA

All those on board have been confirmed dead, Russia’s transport minister has said.

Reports said the plane was an An-148, a regional jet belonging to Saratov Airlines, which had been travelling to the city of Orsk, near to the Kazakhstan border.

The aircraft began descending shortly after take-off. Credit: AP

Flightradar24 tweeted that the aircraft departed at 11.22am local time and began descending just five minutes later, losing signal around 20 miles south-east of the airport.

The Interfax news agency quoted Sergei Sheremetsinsky, a spokesman for the regional governor, as saying that all passengers were residents of the Orenburg region.

Russia's Investigative Committee said all possible crash causes were being looked into.

President Vladimir Putin has postponed a planned trip to Sochi to closely monitor the investigation.

A Saratov Airlines Antonov-148. Credit: PA

Shabby equipment and poor supervision have plagued Russian civil aviation for years, but its safety record has improved markedly in recent years.

The last large-scale crash in Russia occurred on in December 2016, when a Tu-154 operated by the Russian Defence Ministry on its way to Syria crashed into the Black Sea minutes after takeoff from Sochi.

All 92 people on board were killed.